Merry Christmas

I found this picture HERE.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

End of Year 2012 - Update

(Updated every day or so till 20 Dec 2012)

Congratulations to Room 10, the first class with all student library books returned this year. Once again only the weekend separated first and second placings, this years runner-up is Room 12 . Well done.

The library stocktake is now almost complete. Once again there appears to be a number of books that are missing - they are not in the library and they are not on issue. We'd love to have these books back again, so if you find any hiding behind shelves or under the furniture please hurry them along back to the library before the holidays.

End of Year Reminder 2012

Don't forget to return your books before the end of term.


I found this Picture HERE

Getting Ready for End of Year 2012

Picture from HERE

The Christmas School Holidays are nearly here and there's some important tasks to get done before they arrive. In the library we're getting ready for our annual end of year stocktake. Library books are due back before this Friday, 30th November. You can help by returning your books to the library A.S.A.P., and before the end of this week please. Lets see if your class can be FIRST to return all their library books this year.

If you find any other school books

such as journals, junior reading books

and class books lying around at home
 please return these to school too.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "Thomas and the Missing Christmas Tree" by Christopher AWDRY

Junior Browsing Book:

• "Charlie Chimp's Christmas" by Keith FAULKNER

Fiction:

• "Butterfly Meadow : Skipper to the Rescue" by Olivia MOSS (Butterfly Meadow series)
• "The Dog Rules" by Coco LA RUE
• "Farm Boy" by Michael MORPURGO

Senior Fiction:

• "No Way Back" by Valerie WILDING (My Story series)
• "The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE

Non-Fiction:

• "Great White Shark" by Deborah NUZZOLO
• "Tiger Shark" by Deborah NUZZOLO

The Brothers Grimm Folktales - 200th Anniversary

The Brothers Grimm are probably the best known storytellers in the world. 

Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm were born in 1785 and 1786 in Hanau, Germany and were part of a large family of eight boys and one girl. Their father Philipp was a lawyer and both Jacob and Wilhelm had intended to study Law and become lawyers, however their real interests lay elsewhere and they instead spent much of their lives collecting German folk tales.   In 1812 they published their first volume of 86 stories and tales Children's and Household Tales (Kinder-und Hausmarchen). The table of contents included such famous stories as: Cinderella; Snow White; Rapunzel; Hansel and Gretel; Little Red Riding Hood and Rumplstiltskin. But if you're looking for a sweet soothing tale "Once upon a time......and they lived happily ever after" you might be best to look somewhere other than the original folk tales of the Brothers Grimm. The stories collected by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm in the early 1800's serve up life as many generations of Europeans knew it - fickle and often cruel. The early editions were not aimed at children at all and the brothers initially refused to have illustrations. Once they discovered this young audience they set about refining and softening their tales. Since the deaths of the Brothers in about 1860 the tales have undergone many adaptions and translations into more than 160 languages. The release of the film adaption of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 was the first of three wildly popular Disney story adaptions. Since then many other adaptions have made it to the big screen.

Currently we have many books containing one or more Grimm's folktale/fairytale in the Non-fiction section of our library as well as some picture book versions of individual tales.

Upper Hutt Library holds numerous books containing one or more Grimm's folktale/fairytale.

The above information about the Grimm Brothers and their folktales was adapted from these web pages: here, here and here, here and here.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "The Children who Loved Books" by Peter CARNAVAS
• "Grandpa Ngata and the Seagull"  by Dave GUNSON

Fiction:

• "Alice-Miranda in New York" by Jacqueline HARVEY (Alice-Miranda series)
• "The Silver Door" by Emily Rodda (Three Doors trilogy)
• "Phantom of the Auditorium" by R.L.STINE (Goosebumps series)
• "Battle of the Worlds : Infernix" by Mac PARK (Boy vs Beast series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Summer's Dream" by Cathy Cassidy (Chocolate Box Girls series)

Non-Fiction:

• "Horribly Hilarious Joke Book" by Terry DEARY

Even More Amazing Book Sculptures

If you'd like to know more about Su Blackwell, the British artist who created these sculptures, you can read an interview here or visit her website here.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "Slinky Malinki , Early Bird" by Lynley DODD
• "Where is Christmas, Jesse Bear?"  by Nancy White CARLSTROM

Fiction:

• "Billie B Brown : The Midnight Feast" by Sally RIPPIN (Billie B Brown series)
• "Amulet : The Last Council" by Kazu KIBUISHI (Amulet series)
• "Diplo-Dizzydocus" by Kyle MEWBURN (Dinosaur Rescue series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick RIORDAN (Percy Jackson series)
• "Alone on a Wide Wide Sea" by Michael MORPURGO

Non-Fiction:

• "Mud, Sweat and Tears" by Bear GRYLLS (Junior Edition)

Coraline is 10!

Celebrate ten years of Coraline by joining the author Neil Gaiman and some of his friends as they read chapters from this creepy book HERE.

If you enjoyed listening to Coraline you might also like to visit the earlier blog posts about Neil Gaiman (here) or about spooky book trailers - which includes a link to Neil Gaiman reading from The Graveyard Book (here).

P.S. I found out about the Coraline videos here.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "The Underpants Zoo" by Brian SENDELBACH
• "Beware the Beast from Below" adapted by Sonia SANDER (Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated series)

Fiction:

• "Hey Jack! : The Crazy Cousins" by Sally RIPPIN (Hey Jack! series)
• "Secret Safari!" by Susannah McFARLANE (EJ12 series)
• "The Wyrm King" by Tony DiTERLIZZI & Holly BLACK (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Ruby Redfort : Look Into My Eyes" by Lauren Child (Ruby Redfort series)

Non-Fiction:

• "The Book of New Zealand Records and Firsts" by Stephen BARNETT
• "Snakes" by Jeff CORWIN

Charlotte's Web

Another in a series of posts about children's classic books available for borrowing from our school library.

Charlotte's Web is one of several popular children's books written by E.B.White. Charlotte's Web was published on the 15th of October 1952 and is the story of a girl named Fern who loves a little pig named Wilbur, of Wilbur's life growing up on the farm and about his friend Charlotte, a large grey spider, who lives in the barn with Wilbur. When it becomes clear that Wilbur is being well fed for a reason, Charlotte and Wilbur are determined to foil the plans of Mr. Zuckerman, the farmer. So with the help of Charlotte and her “terrific” webs and other barnyard friends, Wilbur becomes the prize-winning pig at the County Fair and the most famous pig ever.

This month it's the 60th Anniversary of Charlotte's Web and below is a book trailer from HarperKids to help celebrate:

I found out about this video here.

Charlotte's Web has also been adapted for film, first as an animated feature in 1973 and more recently starring actors and real animals in 2006.

Currently we have 2 copies of Charlotte's Web by E.B.White in the Fiction section of our library.

Upper Hutt Library currently holds 5 copies of Charlotte's Web by E.B.White as well as 2 picture book versions; 2 audio books and a DVD.

The above information about Charlotte's Web was adapted from here and here. If you'd like to find out more about E.B.White and his books, including his other children's classics Stuart Little and Trumpet of the Swan, you can find more here.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "Melu" by Kyle MEWBURN illustrated by Ali TEO & John O'REILLY
• "V For Vanishing" by Patricia MULLINS

Fiction:

• "A Cat Called Penguin" by Holly WEBB
• "Nightmare Academy : Monster War" by Dean LOREY (Nightmare Academy series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Inheritance" by Christopher PAOLINI (Inheritance Cycle series)
• "Billy the Kid" by Michael MORPURGO

Non-Fiction:

• "Blitz" by Terry DEARY (Horrible Histories Handbook series)
• "Freak Out!" by Ginjer L. CLARKE

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "Do Pirates Take Baths?" by Kathy TUCKER illustrated by Nadine Bernard WESTCOTT

Fiction:

• "Birdmagic" by Holly WEBB (Animal Magic series)
• "The Strange Case of Origami Yoda" by Tom ANGELBERGER (Origami Yoda series)
• "Billie B. Brown : The Bad Butterfly" by Sally RIPPIN (Billie B. Brown series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Scorpia Rising" by Anthony HOROWITZ (Alex Rider series)

Junior Browsing:

• "I Spy Numbers" by Jean MARZOLLO

Non-Fiction:

• "The Story of the All Blacks : Spring Bok Fever & Grand Slams" by Kevin Boon
• "The Story of the All Blacks : Politics & World Cups" by Kevin Boon

Mrs Keane recommends ...

 Fiction

Thornspell by Helen LOWE

(Fairy Tale Adaption/Fantasy/Adventure) Prince Sigismund has grown up listening to stories of magical enchantments, knights and dragons, he'd love to be part of such a fantastical adventure but they're all just stories aren't they?

The Familiars series by Adam James EPSTEIN & Andrew JACOBSON

(Fantasy/Animal stories) Find out how Alwyn, a young alley cat without a speck of magic, can become the familiar of a trainee wizard. When the wizard and his fellow trainees are kidnapped Alwyn teams up with the other familiars to save them.

Alice-Miranda series by Jacqueline HARVEY

(Girls stories) Alice-Miranda is a perpetually positive seven year old girl who takes herself off to boarding school, just because it appeals to her sense of adventure and regardless of the protests from her tearful parents.

Three Doors Trilogy by Emily RODDA

(Fantasy/Adventure) The Warden of Weld asks for volunteers to venture out and find and destroy the enemy. Many young heroes volunteer and none has ever returned. Rye is too young to follow his brothers on this quest, but things change and he feels he must go now if he's to find and help them.

The One And Only Ivan by Katherine APPLEGATE

(Animal stories) Ivan the gorilla has spent most of his life with humans and the other animals in the Big Top Mall.  He has only vague memories of the time before his cage until the arrival of a young elephant who reminds him of the importance of family and belonging.

Can you see what I see?

Famingo's everywhere and one or two going the wrong way!
 

You can find out more about this picture HERE

Hint:  If you click on the picture or follow the HERE link above you can see a bigger version of the picture and the 'wrong way' flamingo's might be easier to find.

Even More Holiday Boredom Busters

Feeling a bit bored these school holidays?

If you're at a loose end and can't think of anything fun to do over the holidays you might want to try some of these links out:

Make your own Captain Underpants Comic 
Here you can make your own Captain Underpants Comic.

Professor Poopypants' Name Change-O-Chart  Here you can find out your silly name, and after you've done that you can find out your friends silly names too.

Do you have what it takes to Save the Dragons in Geronimo Stilton's Kingdom of Fantasy? 
Take the quiz and find out.

Or you could visit the online Dear Dumb Diary and Make your own Diary.

I found all of the above at Scholastic's The Stacks for Kids where there are links to all sorts of other fun stuff too - like Goosebumps!

Here are some fun Horrible Histories games and other fun Horrible stuff too.

Here you will find some Billie B Brown Boredom Busters.


AND if you haven't already seen them check out the other Boredom Buster posts on the library blog too.

The Famous Five

Another in a series of posts about children's classic books available for borrowing from our school library.

The Famous Five is one of several popular series of books written by Enid Blyton. There are 21 original Famous Five books which were written between 1942 and 1963. The books are about the many adventures of four children; Julian, Dick, Anne and Georgina (known as George) and their dog Timmy.

"Armed with maps, torches, packets of sandwiches and a plentiful supply of ginger-beer, Julian, Dick, Anne, their tomboy cousin George (Georgina by rights) and Timmy the dog like nothing better than to spend their holidays hiking and biking, camping and exploring by themselves, invariably falling into adventure."

This year is the 70th Anniversary of the Famous Five books and to help celebrate the publishers, Hodder Children's Books, asked five famous illustrators to design new covers for the first five books in the series.

Image from LibraryMice.com HERE

Currently we have 2 books from the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton in the Fiction section of our library. Next term look out for the other three 70th Anniversary Edition titles on the New Books display to add to our collection.

Upper Hutt Library currently holds copies of about 20 Famous Five books by Enid Blyton as well as 2 audio books.

The above information about the Famous Five was adapted from here and here.  If you'd like to find out more about Enid Blyton and her books you can find more here.

Coming Next Term ...

There are no books on the New Books Display this week, but here is a sneak peek of some books to keep a look out for next term:

Some Goosebumps, Horrible Histories and a few more children's classic titles

The last and latest in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

A book about Origami Yoda, and also one about Bear Grylls

And still more from Billie B Brown, Geronimo Stilton and friends and also the My Story series

Hope you have a fun, sunny time over the holidays - see you back at school next term.

P.S. Don't forget to return your overdue books before the end of the week!

Tolkien Week

This week is Tolkien Week.

First celebrated in 1978 by the American Tolkien Society, and observed every year over the week containing 22nd September - known as Hobbit Day.  Why 22nd September?  Because it's the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins of course!  This year is even more significant it being the 75th Anniversary of the publication of "The Hobbit" by J R R Tolkien. 
Sir Peter Jackson has joined in Tolkien Week this year by releasing a new trailer for the first Hobbit movie due to be released at the end of this year.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "The Pocket Dogs go on Holiday" by Margaret WILD illustrated by Stephen Michael KING
• "Legends of Bikini Bottom" (Spongebob Squarepants series)

Fiction:

• "Dragonbreath : Lair of the Bat Monster" by Ursula VERNON (Dragonbreath series)
• "Five on a Treasure Island" by Enid BLYTON (Famous Five series)
• "Five go off in a Caravan" by Enid BLYTON (Famous Five series)
• "Butterfly Meadow : Mallow's Top Team" by Olivia MOSS (Butterfly Meadow series)

Non-Fiction:

• "The Lego Ideas Book : You Can Build Anything" by Daniel LIPKOWITZ
• "The Small Blacks Annual 2011" by Peter HAROLD

A Magical Location!

It's hard to believe this place really exists. 
It looks like it could be a fictional location from a fantasy novel or fairy tale!


You can find out more about this picture HERE

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "Red Plane to the Rescue" by Melissa FIRTH illustrated by Cheryl ORSINI
• "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed Fly Guy" by Tedd ARNOLD

Fiction:

• "Dragonbreath : Attack of the Ninja Frogs" by Ursula VERNON (Dragonbreath series)
• "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson BURNETT
• "Me! (Just Like You Only Better)" by Jim BENTON (Dear Dumb Diary series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Toby Alone" by Timothee de FOMBELLE 
• "The Vitality Code" by Michael OEHLEY 

Non-Fiction:

• "Unravelling the History of Mummies Around the World" by Sylvia BRANZEI

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "My Mum Has X-Ray Vision" by Angela McALLISTER illustrated by Alex T. SMITH
• "Kiwi Mum's" by Yvonne MORRISON illustrated by Ross KINNAIRD

Fiction:

• "Battle of the Mutants : Terraserpix" by Mac PARK (Boy vs Beast series)
• "The Sword in the Stone" by               T.H. WHITE
• "Okay, So Maybe I Do Have Superpowers" by Jim BENTON (Dear Dumb Diary series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Skulduggery Pleasant : Kingdom of the Wicked" by Derek LANDY (Skulduggery Pleasant series)

Non-Fiction:

• "The Story of the All Blacks : Originals & Invincibles" by Kevin BOON
• "The Story of the All Blacks : Lions, Wallabies & Springboks" by Kevin BOON

Father's Day

A video post especially for Father's Day.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "The Grumble Bee" by Kyle MEWBURN illustrated by Ingrid BERZINS
• "The Pet Shop Revolution" by Ana JUAN

Fiction:

• "The Christmas Toy Factory" by Geronimo STILTON (Geronimo Stilton series)
• "Billie B Brown : The Night Fright" by Sally RIPPIN (Billie B Brown series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Iris's Ukulele" by Kathy TAYLOR
• "The 4 Powers of Daren Saner" by Michael OEHLEY

Non-Fiction:

• "Terror Below! True Shark Stories" by Dana DEL PRADO
• "Day Moon" by Robin FRY

A Warmer Climate Anyone?

Feeling like a change from the wet winter weather we've been having?  Mmmm, perhaps not such a drastic change as this!

You can find out more about this photograph here.

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "Beach Bag Boogie" by Lindsay WOOD, Illustrated by Rebekah HOLGUIN 
• "Otto the Book Bear" by Katie CLEMINSON

Fiction:

• "Battle of the Borders : Isolus" by Mac PARK (Boy vs Beast series)
• "The Dancing Bear" by Michael MORPURGO 
• "Farticus Maximus : Bottomus Burps of Britannia" by Felice ARENA (Farticus Maximus series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Wonderstruck" by Brian SELZNICK

Non-Fiction:

• "Submerged : Magical Tales by Kiwi Kids"
• "The History of Vampires and Other Real Blood Drinkers" by Sylvia BRANZEI

Skulduggery Pleasant Kingdom of the Wicked

Would you like a chance to win your own autographed copy of Derek Landy's latest Skulduggery book?

Then get on over and enter and take your chance to win one of two copies up for grabs.  The competition is open to New Zealand entries only and closes on Wednesday 22 August 2012 - SO BE QUICK.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

Mrs Keane recommends ...

Picture Books:

The Interrupting Chicken
by David Ezra Stein

The Cat's Pyjamas
by Catherine Foreman

Goldilocks and the Three Bears          by Lauren Child &
illustrated by Polly Borland
& Emily Jenkins

Queen Victoria's Underpants
by Jackie French &
illustrated by Bruce Whatley

Slinky Malinki Early Bird
by Lynley Dodd

Monster Prize Competition

Can you draw Monsters?

Would you like to win a $50 prize pack?

Zac at My Best Friends Are Books blog is hosting an awesome competition on his blog to celebrate the release of the latest book in Cristy Burne's Takeshita Demons series, Monster Matsuri.  Thanks to Walker Books Australia, kids from Australia and New Zealand can enter the Takeshita Demons Monster Prize Competition to win 1 of 10 $50 prize packs.

To get in the draw you need to send a picture of your favourite montster. It can either be a monster of your own creation or a monster from a book or movie.

The COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED but you can head over and find out who won, go to Takeshita Demons Monster Prize Competition

On the New Books Display this Week

Picture Book:

• "Mind your Gramma!" by Yvonne MORRISON; Illustrated by Nikki Slade ROBINSON 
• "Old MacDonald's Farm" Illustrated by Donovan BIXLEY

Fiction:

• "Running Wild" by Michael MORPURGO
• "Pyramid Puzzle" by Susannah McFARLANE (EJ12 series)
• "Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People" by Dav PILKEY (Captain Underpants series)

Senior Fiction:

• "Skulduggery Pleasant : The End of the World" by Derek LANDY (Skulduggery Pleasant series)
• "Road to War" by Valerie WILDING (My Story-UK series)

Non-Fiction:

• "The Extraordinary Everglades" by Jeff CORWIN

Derek Landy visits Upper Hutt

Yesterday Irish author Derek Landy visited Upper Hutt, he was co-hosted by Hutt International Boys School (HIBS) and St Brendan's School. The event was held in HIBS auditorium and students from the Hutt Valley, and perhaps a bit further afield, were welcomed by Kapa Haka performed by St Brendan's senior students. (Well done seniors, I've had some great feedback from other schools about your Kapa Haka.)

Derek began by talking about his life - from childhood till now, it took about nine minutes...  He filled in some of the rest of his talk telling us about his pets, his German Shepherd - who now lives with his parents, and two Staffordshire Bull Terriers that he adopted as older dogs.  He also told us how he became a Dog and Cat person after originally being a Dog person.  It was all the fault of this little grey cat who kept visiting him in his new house and staring at him as he was working on his next Skulduggery book. The cat kept visiting, and kept visiting and he noticed it was getting a bit thin, so he started to feed it (big mistake!) He didn't know if the cat was a boy or a girl, and he didn't ask. He soon found out when two cute wee kittens arrived.  Now he had three cats!  Derek soon discovered that cats can multiply a bit like rabbits if you're not careful and at one point he had 13 cats in his house. Lucky for him he managed to find homes for most of them with other people.

Derek is "World Famous" for his Skulduggery Pleasant series of books for children and young adults - and he has a few adult fans too I hear! We found out some interesting facts about the Skulduggery books and here are a couple that I remember from yesterday. 

• It took him six months to write the first draft of the first Skulduggery Pleasant book, and in this first draft Tanith Lee was killed.
• The only character that is based on a real person in some way is Skulduggery Pleasant who is based on Derek Landy  Stephanie/Valkyrie who is based on a martial arts student he knew - this helped him with how a teenage girl would react to things, he didn't know this since he was never a teenage girl.
• There may one day be a Skulduggery Pleasant movie.

photo by Mr Lawrence

After question time those who were interested (and who remembered to bring their Skulduggery book along) were able to go and get a book signed by Derek.  A few St Brendan's students had books with them for signing - of course us adults were only in the photo with Derek Landy and the students to make up the numbers - Honest!

You can find out more about Derek Landy and the Skulduggery Pleasant books in my earlier blog post here

Book Fair 2012 - Update

St Brendan's Book Fair is over again for another year. A BIG Thank you to everyone who came along and supported our major library "fundraiser". The value of sales this year earned us 30 free new books for our library collection. A BIG Thank you also to the families who purchased "Red Dot" books for donation to the library - keep a look out for them in the library later this term, they will all have special Book Fair 2012 Donation book plates inside!

A Sweet Book!

Something to get your teeth stuck into!

Or should that be:

Something to get stuck in your teeth!

You can find out how to make these books here.

Book Fair 2012

St Brendan's Book Fair will be open before and after school next week.
It will also be open late during Student Conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Sorry No Eftpos.

Opening Hours:
Mon 30th July     2.40pm-3.15pm
Tues 31st July   8.40am-9.15am
                 and    2.40pm-8.00pm
Wed 1st August 8.40am-9.15am
                 and    2.40pm-5.00pm
Thur 2nd August 8.40am-9.15am
                 and    2.40pm-3.15pm
Fri 3rd August     8.40am-9.15am

Hope to see you there.

Remember all purchases from the Book Fair help to earn free books for our school library.